8800 - wait and see...

Just some FYI for anyone who is considering an 8800 purchase.

I picked up an 8800GTS on an eVGA trade-up for my 7900GTO, since the
trade-up window was going to close soon.

First off, you can crank some unbelievable levels of AA and AF at high
res on this thing. The Anandtech article was not understating what a
big jump forward this is (on par with the ATI 9700 release).

Unfortunately this is at huge cost in compatibility. Not unexpected,
but there are some major issues with fairly popular games. Some brand
cards cannot even load the latest drivers. My eVGA could use the
97.44's direct from nVidia, but the stupid nTune app refuses to
install. I haven't tested on all my games, but Halo is the first one
with game-killing artifacts I've run into. I may do some extensive
testing as I've got a ton of different games. I just got the card, so
all I've played is Prey, COD2, rFactor, GTR2, RBR, F.E.A.R., Quake 4,
and Halo. Only spent any length of time in GTR2, and Halo was the only
one with immediate, unplayable bugs.

Lots of little annoying quirks in the driver and control panel, too.
Could only get the old CP through a registry hack, and I had to use the
reforce util to get refresh rates to work properly in OpenGL.

I'm trying to find good forum info - nZone has a thread tracking the
current bugs. Luckily if I have anything I'm desperate to play I have
an ATI1600 in my "office tasks" PC, and a 6800Ultra in my media box
hooked to the TV.

If people are genuinely interested I'll update this thread with
anything I run into compatibility-wise.

Kendt

* :

Just some FYI for anyone who is considering an 8800 purchase.

[snipped description of experience with GF8800GTS]

If people are genuinely interested I'll update this thread with
anything I run into compatibility-wise.

That would be great. I was thinking about replacing my two Quadro
FX4500s with a 8800GTX but the fact that the card is not supported by
the standard ForceWare drivers made my curious about the compatibility.
Looks like waiting for the unified drivers to support the 8800 series
isn't a bad idea at all.

BTW: what are your system specs and OS version?

Benjamin

Benjamin Gawert wrote:
[snip]

BTW: what are your system specs and OS version?

Benjamin

WinXP 32bit, AMD Opteron 165 @2.5Ghz, 2gb RAM on Asrock Dual-SATA m/b.
I've OC'd the 8800GTS to 600/900 w/o a problem so far.

I'll set AA/AF to app controlled and do a quick run-through of my
games.

Kendt

"If people are genuinely interested I'll update this thread with
anything I run into compatibility-wise"
Yes please and thanks..
I have my eye on the 8800 and this makes for usefull warning.
In the UK the Albatron brand model GTS is the lowest price at just under
£300 ($580 USD) with other same spec. brands up to £350.
Any different between the brands ??...GTX can be got for just over £400 .

I'd be very surpised if there are any unsolvable problems with any existing
games..I mean if it runs one DX9 (or 8) prog it will run another ?
Wonder how it copes with (say) DAGGERFALL or DESCENT
Dos game things. Does it offer all the standed Text DOS modes ?
Mouse
@@@

I have my eye on the 8800 and this makes for usefull warning.

Also be aware that AMD/ATI are not too far away from releasing the R600,
and have stated in their PR/hype that it should easily match the 8800. Who
knows when it'll be out, within a few months I'd imagine.

rms

" wrote in message
ups.com...
Unfortunately this is at huge cost in compatibility. Not unexpected,
but there are some major issues with fairly popular games. Some brand
cards cannot even load the latest drivers. My eVGA could use the
97.44's direct from nVidia, but the stupid nTune app refuses to
install.

Any time you have a separate piece of software released independently from
the core drivers, you will be constantly dogged with version mismatch and
other conflicts. Look at ATi's MMC, quite a mess. Then again, why do you
need nTune? Overclocking shouldn't be necessary for another year or so with
this card.

I'm trying to find good forum info - nZone has a thread tracking the
current bugs. Luckily if I have anything I'm desperate to play I have
an ATI1600 in my "office tasks" PC, and a 6800Ultra in my media box
hooked to the TV.

Sigh Having to constantly fall back on a secondary box to play games that
your new $600 toy can't run, is unacceptable. Interestingly, I don't recall
the Radeon 9700 having as many issues at launch. In fact, it was a big
improvement in compatibility compared to the 8500 it superceded.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

First of One wrote:


Any time you have a separate piece of software released independently from
the core drivers, you will be constantly dogged with version mismatch and
other conflicts. Look at ATi's MMC, quite a mess. Then again, why do you
need nTune? Overclocking shouldn't be necessary for another year or so with
this card.

I didn't *need* nTune - I just started there as the nVidia CP directs
you to the web site to get OC/temp options added to the control panel.
ATItool/the old CP ended up being the solution for me. OC'ing may not
be necessary, but I like to see what the card can do, and where I'm
CPU/GPU limited. I saw a recent test where the GTS responds well (in
FPS terms) to OC'ing, while the GTX is the card that is so fast that
nothing can feed it enough bits to choke it.


Sigh Having to constantly fall back on a secondary box to play games that
your new $600 toy can't run, is unacceptable. Interestingly, I don't recall
the Radeon 9700 having as many issues at launch. In fact, it was a big
improvement in compatibility compared to the 8500 it superceded.

Well, I keep a Win98SE machine with a Voodoo5 to fall back on too .
I've gotta say I agree with you - that's why I posted. And I didn't
pay $600, then I'd be *really* ****ed . There really is no game that
will make me jump through a million hoops to make it work - if I get
that frustrated I'll just shut the PC off and go play Guitar Hero or
something...

Kendt

On 19 Dec 2006 11:20:18 -0800, "
wrote:

Just some FYI for anyone who is considering an 8800 purchase.

I picked up an 8800GTS on an eVGA trade-up for my 7900GTO, since the
trade-up window was going to close soon.

First off, you can crank some unbelievable levels of AA and AF at high
res on this thing. The Anandtech article was not understating what a
big jump forward this is (on par with the ATI 9700 release).

Unfortunately this is at huge cost in compatibility. Not unexpected,
but there are some major issues with fairly popular games. Some brand
cards cannot even load the latest drivers. My eVGA could use the
97.44's direct from nVidia, but the stupid nTune app refuses to
install. I haven't tested on all my games, but Halo is the first one
with game-killing artifacts I've run into. I may do some extensive
testing as I've got a ton of different games. I just got the card, so
all I've played is Prey, COD2, rFactor, GTR2, RBR, F.E.A.R., Quake 4,
and Halo. Only spent any length of time in GTR2, and Halo was the only
one with immediate, unplayable bugs.

Lots of little annoying quirks in the driver and control panel, too.
Could only get the old CP through a registry hack, and I had to use the
reforce util to get refresh rates to work properly in OpenGL.

I'm trying to find good forum info - nZone has a thread tracking the
current bugs. Luckily if I have anything I'm desperate to play I have
an ATI1600 in my "office tasks" PC, and a 6800Ultra in my media box
hooked to the TV.

If people are genuinely interested I'll update this thread with
anything I run into compatibility-wise.

Kendt


Usual "early-adopter" joys. No news here. The 8800 is a revolutionary
departure from previous nVidia GPU architectures. Takes a while to
mature the drivers. ATi have had similar driver maturity issues in the
past with their various architecture changes. Initially poor support
for xcurrent and legacy games. Thanks for being a beta -tester and for
helping to defray the development-cost.

John Lewis

John Lewis wrote:

Usual "early-adopter" joys. No news here. The 8800 is a revolutionary
departure from previous nVidia GPU architectures. Takes a while to
mature the drivers. ATi have had similar driver maturity issues in the
past with their various architecture changes. Initially poor support
for xcurrent and legacy games. Thanks for being a beta -tester and for
helping to defray the development-cost.

You're welcome ...

Honestly, if it wasn't for the trade-up program, and I had something
faster than a 7900GTO before hand I wouldn't have touched either an ATI
or nVidia card so soon after launch.

Kendt

" wrote in message
ups.com...

If people are genuinely interested I'll update this thread with
anything I run into compatibility-wise.

Kendt


Thanks for posting, it is appreciated. This info, while not surprising,
still provides welcome feedback. I'll give things a year before buying a
DirectX 10 card of any sort.